Burned
by hont91
Summary: Yuuno is slowly burning himself in his work, without regards to health. And with barely any friends to change him, things may take a turn for worse.
1. Chapter 1

Warning, Yuuno-centered fic, if you don't like it, give it a read anyways and then bash me on the review.

This much is obvious but MGLN does not belong to me, if it did, Precia would have died moments after her appearance... and Yuuno wouldn't have disappeared. Just saying...

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><p>"...also need that report on illegal devices that was archived 50 years ago, think you can do it?"<p>

My headache was killing me, but I managed to smile at my friend/superior/arch-rival, a separate part of my mind already running the scrying spell for the right data.

"I should get it by tomorrow admiral."

Through the link I could see him raising an eyebrow.

"A whole day? You're slowing down ferret-boy." His voice in a teasing tone.

I winced at the nickname, no one seemed to ever forget about this, and Chrono seemed to be especially keen on using it.

I would never admit it, but some part of me was actually glad to have him still talking like this to me, the last years haven't been so good to my relationship with… well, with anyone.

"Yeah, I'm a little behind the schedule, the assistants are picking up the pace but I would appreciate if you found someone with actual skill to help, most of them can barely use the search system, even when I'm powering it."

At this he leaned forward, a small worry appearing on his eyes, even if his poker face never changed.

"What do you mean, you're powering the system? I'm sure the petition for an artificial magic generator was approved when you proposed it." It was actually one of the first things he did when I proposed the system, even if he would never admit to care.

"It was _unsuitable_." Was my short reply, the thing was made for military-use, so the converted energy was too raw for such a fine-tuned array, it almost fried the system when we turned the thing on.

Idly, I noticed that some of the searches were getting wrong results and separated an even bigger part of my attention to the calculations on the manual mode of the system.

Only Arf knew that, but it's already been a week since we discovered the generator couldn't power the system, after that, it only lasted a day on my power before inconsistences started to appear on the searches and I turned it to 'manual mode', most of the problems were because the system was almost fried, and we didn't have the time to fine-tune it again, so we were stuck in this arrangement until we got a new power-source and I could take my time correcting it.

The headache got stronger, even with my multi-tasking ability been developed into something akin to dividing my mind into several pieces, the human brain was simply not made to work like a high-grade device for several incompetent assistants.

"Yuuno!" His angry voice called me back from my musings.

"What?"

Chrono shot me an evaluating glare.

"I was talking about sending the specifics of the system to Mariel and Shari, if it needs a custom generator they should be able to create one." He informed me, all the while with the same glare.

"Oh, that should be helpful" I could only answer sheepishly.

On the back of my mind, I cursed as yet another search ended in wrong results, forcing me to dispense a greater part of my mind to the task, this was getting harder and harder by the minute.

"I also said that you look like a dead man and should take a break" Chrono's voice called me back.

"I don't need a break, I just came back from one." I just didn't remember when was the last time I took a break, but I was pretty sure it was somewhere in the last month.

The evaluating glare gave away to a worried one, even his poker face dropped.

"Yuuno! It's been 2 years since your last vacation! And you only take one day every month to rest! You can't keep going like that!"

This made me lose control on some of the searches, I would have to restart them later, but for now this required my attention, Chrono was never someone to show emotion, especially concern.

"I-"

"Don't! No excuses! I know I give you too much work, but with this new system you should be able to relax, rest for now, we don't have any major cases going so it's okay to be late, and the new generator should be ready in two or three days, just… Rest!"

Was I that bad for him to admit to give me too much work? Well, now I knew I shouldn't tell him the system was running on manual or he would get someone to take me away from the library.

"Chrono… Okay then, I will take tomorrow to rest and try to take it easy until the new generator is done." I tried to reassure my friend.

"Just remember not to worry your friends ok? Take it easy… You really look like a dead man…"

It seems he got embarrassed by this open display of worry because he immediately turned the link off. I wanted to laugh a little but couldn't seem to find the strength for that, instead I stretched my back and leaned on the nothing, enjoying the zero-gravity of the library for a while.

"Friends, huh?"

It had started slowly, soon after the Jail Scaglietti incident. I was always aware at some point that Nanoha's bonds were unusually strong to her comrade-in-arms', so it wasn't much of a surprise when we started losing the little contact we had. It was predictable especially with her raising Vivio that those who had the time to help would slowly grow closer…

With some regret I could now understand that Nanoha's family had grow larger and closer, and I slowly drifted away from them.

Now, I only talk to: Chrono on occasion; and sometimes Hayate appears in the library, usually when she needs to relax a little, someone to talk. Since I only talk to the librarians and Arf, it's good to have her here now and then…

My headache grew stronger as the unsuspecting librarians poured even more requests onto the system, maybe linking myself to what should have been a complex autonomous search system was not one of my brightest ideas.

Still, I had a job… Chrono wouldn't check up on me, so I wouldn't need to rest tomorrow, and I was late on most of my deadlines…

"Another day working past closing-time it seems…" I would have chuckled if I could.

Slowly, with practiced ease, I divided my mind into several pieces, each piece running the separate equations needed for the system, and one last for my scrying spell, I had to look for that record Chrono needed afterall.

I ignored the fact that my headache only grew stronger by the minute and that my vision started to turn black…

After all, the human brain was not made to work like that…

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><p>now, this is my second try at Yuuno overworking himself, the first one had Nanoha angst realizing her friend(arguably her longest friend) had drifted away and ended up forcing himself to near-death.<p>

ignoring two pieces that never managed to make it over a simple idea, this is my first fic in english, and alas! I throw myself to the wolfs by having Yuuno as the protagonist! Maybe I like suffering or whatever -_-"

anyways, you're free to say whatever you want to me, what doesn't kill me may make my story better, that also means that everyone is free to correct any mistakes I'm making, and I'm pretty sure there must be a lot of them there...

on a side note, I'm putting this 4 years after Strikers, so Nanoha & co are 23, Vivio is 10, just thought it would be good for you to know, since I may or may not continue this, depending on my mood(how this fic is seen does have some impact on my mood too...)

well, that's about it my friends, see you somewhere in this vast universe o/

I will be back!


	2. Chapter 2

so, it's like this, I already told a few people i'm using this fic to build my style, but I will leave that here so anyone can know that.  
>Anyways, this chapter actually took longe because it's not my first attempt(heck, it's the third or fourth, can't remember which one), the original ones ran into a problem. the library was suposed to be at HQ, that's suposed to be somewhere in the dimensional space... no one could 'go' to him, so that's what we get, I usually change canon to my whims but not this time(no idea WHY I didn't want to change it), if I'm wrong about that however, do tell me so I can beat myself -_-"<br>... I mean it...

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><p>1 day. 3 hours. 57 minutes. Slowly, I could feel my consciousness coming back from the void. It was strangely enough to be a painful process, as if the darkness didn't want me to come back to myself.<p>

1 day. 3 hours. 58 minutes. What was that? Why was I counting the time, how did I even manage to count while unconscious?

1 day. 3 hours. 59 minutes. Idly I stretched my conscience to the part of my mind that was on something similar to automatic mode, just keeping track of time. It seems my multitasking ability has reached a new level since I could keep two separate parts my mind, one awake and another asleep…

…

…

…

1 day. 19 hours. 37 minutes. What the? The time changed… did I blackout? That's …

2 days. 1 hour. 3 minutes. …Strange… What… I better stop with that... Again I start to stretch my mind, wrestling against the darkness that kept me in the line between conscious and unconscious.

2 days. 1 hour. 4 minutes. I slowly start to regain my bearings, now my mind finally start working like it should, I can feel my body floating somewhere in the library, my linker core being slowly drained by the system I created, and the tingling feeling of my body starting to wake up.

2 days. 1 hour. 5 minutes. Finally I manage to open my eyes, trying to get a bearing of where exactly I am in the library. And I see nothing.

2 days. 1 hour. 6 minutes. Darkness, no, not exactly a dark place, my eyes just seem to not be working, what exactly was I doing?

2 days. 1 hour. 7 minutes. I must have reached my limits… Even as I reach such a conclusion my mind is strangely calm, analyzing the situation, the little information, slowly making progress…

2 days. 1 hour. 8 minutes. Now what should I do, maybe I shouldn't have given Arf those three days of rest, but it was such a rare chance for her to be with Fate that I really didn't want her to be locked here.

2 days. 1 hour. 9 minutes. I decide to contact someone. Even if I'm at my limit I was pretty sure I could still use short-range telepathy.

2 days. 1 hour. 10 minutes. Again, I stretch my mind, like a muscle my conscious reach the part of me that's marking time, only to absorb it. I would need most of my power to send a one-time only distress signal.

I mentally chuckle as I remember that it was such a magic that called Nanoha to me, all those years ago. I wonder if she would come back again…

What an unrealistic and wishful thought. I, more than anyone, know it is impossible, for the infinite library is located at the TSAB HQ, in the middle of the dimensional sea, and Nanoha hates this place, so there's no reason for her to come here.

Yes… No reason at all.

I clear my head of these thoughts. Dwelling in them won't help, and by the minute my linker core is being slowly drained away by the system. If I don't send the distress signal now, I probably won't be able to do it later.

So, I slowly draw from my abused linker core, just enough power to reach someone inside the library, hoping that someone actually hears it. Most librarians aren't exactly used to telepathic contact after all.

"_Help… Can someone hear me? Help…"_

I could probably have chosen better words, or been more specific, but even as I send the message, I can barely keep awake from the strains. That's the better I can do at the moment. I just hope that's enough.

Surely… Someone must have… heard it… right…?

…

…

…

"Gah!"― I wake up with a jerk, my eyes wide open even if my vision is not yet restored, and pain running through my whole body, somewhere in my mind I understand this pain is my linker core starting to collapse, and the link to the system being broken.

Still, in the middle of it all I wonder if someone heard me… Almost mockingly, another side of my mind answers: 3 days. 11 hours. 29 minutes.

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><p>Short as it is, I hope you liked it.<p>

On a side note... I like Yuuno, but there's no other way I could see this going ^^"


End file.
